Here we go again, if I keep chipping away at this I'll be back up to date fairly soon. I guess the real reason I've been writing these blogs as of late is because I'm slogging back through Game Room again. I had reached level 17 before having the 40 odd hours of progress wiped from the face of my Xbox. I remember loading up Game Room and feeling good about closing in on finally finishing it, only to be welcomed by an empty arcade. Bewildered I checked my progress, I must have reset and rechecked two or three times hoping for a change, wishing it was just a temporary glitch or connection problem and that any second now it would re-download my stats from a server online. No such luck for me, in a mixture of disbelief and rage I turned my 360 off and did something else for a while, I couldn't look my Xbox in the eye. 
 
That's all in the past now and I'm happy to say I'm now nearly level 19, getting oh so close to that last achievement. I've decided to do a few more write ups of the games I've been playing while I wait for those stupid Time Spender medals to tick over. First up is... 
 
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
I think this edition of catch up is going to be heavy on the XBLA titles as well, I didn't realise I played so many of them back to back. This version of Pac-Man is the craziest (and easiest) yet. I think I wrapped this up in about 15 minutes, if I hadn't  have got this on sale I think I might have felt a bit ripped off. The actual game is really fast paced and entertaining, though it is it's speed that is both Pac-Man CE DX's biggest draw and Achilles heel. The thing that separates it and makes it interesting is also the same thing that means you've already played the game and seen what it has to offer 5 times in 5 minutes. 
 
The music and art style are super manic and amped up to fall inline with this package, which was super, super fun to play... for the 15 minutes I played it. I guess I just can't recommend buying something that you'll be done with in the same time it takes to jerk off, which is free. I guess if you want to add another 100% completed game to your card asap then this will deliver not only that but some real fun as well. 
 
Beyond Good & Evil 
I could gush about this game for a while, but in the interest of catching up I'll try and keep it short. If you haven't played this game and you like games that encapsulate you in a completely unique open world, filled with things you've never seen before, offers a fairly intelligent and emotional story, rewards exploration and doesn't try to hit you over the head with how dark and "serious" it is then give it a go. I would say this is one of my most fondly remembered games of the last 5 to 10 years and the opportunity to replay it with enhanced graphics was something that I had to jump on. 
 
This is a full length retail game that I originally played on the Xbox and definitely offers you value for money. It is a little old now so the graphics aren't amazing and some of the game play might be a tiny little bit dated, but don't let that put you off. I try to convince people to play this whenever I can, but most people seem to offer indifference to things that don't have guns and head shots. I don't know everyone's likes and dislikes and it might not be your favourite game ever  but I can honestly say that it would shock me if you didn't enjoy playing through this game. 
 
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project 
Here we have a PSX era, barely polygonal (if Duke's head has more than 6 sides I'll eat my hat) platformer/shooter. While just scraping though most of the way as barely entertaining this game is actually quite long and turns into a major slog. It's been a while since I found myself wishing that a game would be drastically shorter than it's actual length, but after hours and hours of increasingly convoluted and complex levels to try and find my way through, searching out key-cards and rescuing the same 3 damsels in distress (with titties so triangular you could stab someone with them) I more than had my fill. The underlying game play isn't that bad or broken, it's just super, super dated and really repetitive. 
 
Limbo 
I had bought Limbo a little while ago when it was on sale, but the tales of how hard it was had put me off playing it for a while. In the end I feel like these tales of woe were blown majorly out of proportion, that or they all come from someone that has never had to replay a decently lengthy section of game once or twice because they failed something. Your first run through Limbo is amazing, it is an eerie silhouetted adventure across a strange and dangerous landscape filled with traps and puzzles to figure out. It's art style and sparse effects combine with tight platforming to create a game the likes of which I'd never seen before. My first run through might have been about 4 hours, though once you've finished it you'll be able to run through in around an hour.  
 
The achievement everyone was complaining about was No Point in Dying which tasks you with running through and completing the game with 5 or less deaths. At first this seems hard, when you think about the 100 or so times you died in your first run through, but once you know what is ahead, and take the appropriate care at the 3 or 4 more difficult spots in the game you'll cut your deaths to under 10 easy. It took me 3 tries (two proper ones, the first I was careless and accrued a couple careless deaths in the first 15 minutes so I ended that run before even making it half way) to pop this apparently impossible achievement. I went on to finish with 7 and 5 deaths in the next two runs, netting another complete arcade game. I will say that the avatar awards in Limbo are really good (a shirt and a little creature you encounter in game.) 
 
I have now just hit level 19 in Game Room so I think I'll end this and concentrate on grabbing the last few medals i need to put this behind me. The way this is going there will be another 2 or more installments before I'm caught up and write about Game Room for real. I've made my peace with Game Room so there won't be too much ranting and raving, but I'll leave you with a sneak peek: Game Room isn't good.